The Answer, My Friend, is Gone With the Wind

Summer of 2017 – Part 2

Generations, Juxtapositions

This post actually carries on just a little bit past the equinox in September when summer turns into autumn, but because I already published chapters titled Summer of 2017 Part 1 and Part 1 1/2, I figured I better finish the trilogy with a Part 2. (And that alone is enough to raise an eyebrow, even prior to my explanation of the title of this chapter!)

This being Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, many of us celebrated by having turkey dinners with friends and family, for which we all ought to be thankful. I know I am! Robyn and I were fortunate enough to have been invited to the home of some friends for dinner, after which we played a game called “Hoopla”. The short explanation of the game is this – each player is given cards, and each card depicts a “where”, a “what”, or a “who”. The person whose turn it is rolls a die, and the colour on which the die lands dictates what the player will need to do – draw, act, make comparisons or alliterations, etc. – so that everyone else will be able to guess what it on his or her card.

It was a mix of generations at our dinner party. Specifically two generations. We’ll call the generations the “under 30’s” and the “significantly over 30’s”. One of the Under 30’s was taking her turn, and she had to act out what her card was. Everyone was having difficulty guessing what she was trying to convey, and the timer beeped before anyone guessed the correct answer. Her card had been a who, and that who was Bob Dylan. So why couldn’t the Significantly Over 30’s (and there were SIX of us!!) guess what it was she was trying to act out? Because she was acting out “Gone with the Wind”. Puzzled faces… then she explained – you know, ‘The answer, my friend, is gone with the wind…”

Much laughter all around, and our revised version of Dylan’s 1962 song, blended with the title of the 1939 movie, was sung many times throughout the evening. I think it might be quite difficult to pick out two more different artistic works than Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind and Dylan’s Blowing In The Wind, but perhaps for the Under 30’s, at least for those whose parents haven’t pushed much “old stuff” on them, all of that old stuff just sort of blends together.

And really, in the two photos above (which aren’t mine, of course – I blatantly hijacked them from a google search), Vivien Leigh and Dylan have very similar expressions on their faces, don’t you think? Of course, the similarity ends there!

Here are a few pictures of some of the fun we had at our Thanksgiving get-together yesterday:

Two Germans and a Canadian Go On a Hike in Ireland and then Reunite in Calgary…

Backtracking to late August, where I had left off at the end of We Are The Music Makers (Summer of 2017, Part 1 1/2), two friends from Germany whom I met last year while hiking in Ireland came to Canada on holiday. It was great fun to be able to spend a few days with them here in Calgary, where they started their Canadian adventure. I had met them on my first day of hiking in August of 2016, and although we didn’t hike together for the first few days, we ran into each other numerous times, and we did spend a good portion of the second half of the hike walking together.

These snaps are from August of 2016:

The stories of walking the Dingle Way can be found in these two posts: Full Moon Over Dingle & Out Of Her Shoes. My German friends and I kept in touch over the past year. We even had team t-shirts printed!

While they were here in Calgary, they had some fun touring around the city centre,

We enjoyed a few meals together,
and then the day before they were to leave for Jasper and into BC, we took a drive around the Highwood Pass, which is Canada’s highest paved road. The road leaves the Trans Canada Highway just west of Calgary, at the Kananaskis turnoff, and continues in a loop that ends in Longview, Alberta. Unfortunately the forest fires in Eastern British Columbia had cast a smokey pall over the mountains on that particular day, as it was very hot and dry and there was no wind, but we still spent an anjoyable day picnicking and reminiscing about our previous year’s hike.

We took a “selfie” of the three of us, and then realized it was the same as one we had taken on the last day of our hike around the Dingle Way last year!

The mountains, although obscured a little by the smoke, were quite stunning nonetheless.

But I think a highlight for them was spotting a black bear just west of Longview!

Three days after landing in Calgary, they rented an RV and headed on their way to points north and west. It was nice to see them, and to show them around Calgary a bit, and hopefully our paths will cross again.

The Juxtaposition of a Generation

Only a few days after I said auf wiedersehen to my German friends, it was time for our local competitions, back-to-back days of solo and full band competitions, in Calgary and Canmore.

As usual, Robyn and I had a great time catching up with our piping and drumming friends, and, as has been the case for four piping seasons now, we competed against each other in the solo events – piobaireachd, March/strathspey/reel, and hornpipe/jig. But for the first time since we started competing in the same class against each other, this generational juxtaposition happened!

I’m not 100% sure which of us was more excited, but I’m pretty sure it was me. A very proud moment indeed, for both mother and daughter!

Here are a few pictures from the Canmore Highland Games, arguably the most beautiful setting for a Highland Games anywhere in the world:

Canmore Highland Games:

And the 1st prize winners of the Open/Professional piobaireachd and the grade 1 piobaireachd at the Canmore Highland Games were…

… two of the New Westminster Police Pipe Band alumni!

Coincidentally, Aaron Malcomb and I are also alumni of the City of Regina Pipe Band, who travelled from Saskatchewan to Alberta to play at our games.

It was great to have them here in Alberta again, splitting the results over the weekend with the current Grade 2 North American Champions, Calgary’s own Rocky Mountain Pipe Band.

The Bar, The Bar is Calling

On a different note altogether – here in Alberta, when someone successfully completes a law degree, and the bar admission work, and is ready to become a member in good standing of the Alberta Bar, there is a private ceremony. The candidate is presented in court, in front of a judge, by his/her principal, who guided the candidate through the bar admission work. The candidate’s friends, family, and co-workers are invited to the ceremony. The candidate swears that he or she will be a worthy member of the Alberta Bar, there are a few speeches, and then the candidate is officially a lawyer. There’s a bit more to it than that, but those are the basics. Then there’s a party afterward.

My own call to the bar was on September 2, 2008. It ended up being more of a roast than a ceremony, and even the judge was in on the ribbing. A good time was had by all, and somehow I ended up becoming a lawyer in good standing.

I had the privilege of witnessing a bar call from the other side recently. The firm where I work, Aarbo Fuldauer LLP, celebrated the occasion of our articling student being called to the bar on September 8th. It had been the first (and only!) such ceremony I had attended since my own, some nine years ago, and it was great to witness. The judge didn’t make any jokes about the candidate dressing up as Natalie MacMaster for Halloween, and the principal’s speech didn’t involve an anecdote about the candidate’s playing bagpipes for the enjoyment of a local herd of cows, but it was entertaining all the same. Below are a few photos of that special occasion when our articling student, Graeme Maitland, became a lawyer:

There were drinks and bagpipes and food after the “official” ceremony, but I thought it best to leave the camera off for the less formal part of the day.

If You Can Read This, Bring Me a Glass of Wine

The last story for this post (and I know you’re thinking Whew! It’s almost over!) involves a weekend trip up to St. Paul Alberta, where Robyn lives. I drove up on a Friday afternoon and drove back to Calgary on the Sunday afternoon, only 48 hours later, but what a fun trip it was!

We had some fabulous meals, including this Caribbean feast made by Robyn:

We went for some walks and enjoyed the sunflowers…

We encountered some aliens…

Drank some wine…

And played some tunes.

A wonderful weekend – a wonderful end-of-summer!

My next adventure will be happening very soon. It’s a fundraiser/social event for the Hamilton Police Pipe Band, that will involve a coach bus and some wineries in the Niagara area. What could possibly go wrong? Stay tuned, and you may find out!
In the meantime, I’ll end this rather lengthy compilation of stories and snaps with a few pictures from my lunchtime walks around the Kensington and Prince’s Island areas of Calgary over the past few weeks. Calgary loves to show off autumn, but unfortunately she is often very short lived, so we enjoy the still-warm weather and fall colours while we can.

Thanks for reading! Have good days, and stay tuned. Please feel free to follow me on Instagram: @piperannie; and on Twitter: @anngray2015.